How Biden Can Address Concerns About Election Integrity

Chicago IL

18 January, 2021

9:59 AM

Description

Sifting through the figurative rubble from the Nov. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol I recovered a valuable nugget—more on that in a moment—that was overshadowed by the tone-deaf charade President Trump's Congressional toadies perpetrated just hours after the riot in the same desecrated legislative chambers. Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and their craven posse of Republican sycophants, including Downstate Illinois reps Mike Bost and Mary Miller, proselytized on the altar of the same discredited conspiracy theories that, with Trump's encouragement, emboldened violent marauders to shake the foundations of the building and our democracy. Bost and Miller were joined by Downstate GOP colleagues Darin LaHood and Rodney Davis this past Wednesday in opposing Democrats' second impeachment of Trump, but with no Senate trial expected before next week's Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, it's not clear what additional price the soon-to-be-former Instigator-in-Chief will pay for fanning the flames before the riot. As for Hawley et al, perhaps they should be banished, at least temporarily, to a political leper colony as punishment for their anti-democratic persistence in disputing the Electoral College's certification of Biden's legitimate and incontrovertible victory. But that shouldn't obscure the importance of a reality—the nugget I mentioned earlier—that underscored their misguided political stunt: Tens of millions of unelected Trump supporters not sworn to uphold the Constitution still believe a rigged election system allowed Biden's allies to steal enough votes to deprive Trump of his rightful "landslide victory." Audits, recounts, investigations and lawsuits failed to uncover any blatant vote fraud, and only a smattering of irregularities, but Trumpers, subjected to weeks of bogus claims by their hero and his loyal political and media acolytes, still believe the fantasies and not the facts. Several thousand zealots and miscreants stormed the Capitol, but millions of their peaceful, Trump-backing allies apparently support the assault, according to post-chaos polling. Their main grievance, fueled by Team Trump's diatribes, is that an unprecedented expansion of mail-in voting, necessitated by fears of crowded polling places during a pandemic, required ballot counting by hand, not machines, inviting tampering and fraud. And since more Democrats than Republicans, especially in heavily-minority urban areas, were voting by mail, in large part because Biden encouraged it and Trump didn't, a lot of white Republicans bought into this racially-tinged vote fraud conspiracy theory. Digging out of this complicated mess will be a long, difficult journey, but a good way to start diffusing a still-volatile situation, and eventually restoring faith in our election machinery, is by inspecting it up close. Step One is to actually execute a version of what the Trumpian Congressional cabal was calling for: Briefly revisit the November election, but with an independent rather than a Congressional commission headed by a couple ex-Presidents or other well-respected former officials, one from each party, who get along and have time on their hands. Folks like George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Colin Powell come to mind right off the top. They should be selected and empowered by soon-to-be President Biden in one of his first acts of reconciliation. Give them a small staff to work alongside election officials in the swing states to quickly confirm the voting and counting was honest and accurate in November, as all the post-election vetting concluded. Revisit cases Trump tried unsuccessfully to push through the courts, which prompted his supporters to allege unfair treatment by the justices system. That would hopefully begin to restore faith in our elections—the bedrock of our democracy—and just as importantly, provide Trump supporters with a new version of reality to at least consider. Step Two is to come up with recommendations for improving an election system that is basically sound but porous enough to need some remediation. Trustworthy elections must have widely-accepted, fraud-resistant procedures for handling mail-in and drop-box ballots, which are here to stay; hi-tech security upgrades to protect the reliability of voting machines; a uniform process for auditing and verifying results, and handling challenges; and finally, a fresh look at our reliance on the arcane Electoral College to determine a winner, regardless of who gets the most popular votes. None of this will quickly heal the wounds inflicted on our democracy and body politic in the last few months by deceitful political leaders and incendiary pundits. That will take years. But a bi-partisan commission's sincere effort to restore faith in our election system is a good way for a new President to encourage the tens of millions who voted against him, and still doubt the legitimacy of his victory, to take a fresh look at the November election, and perhaps grudgingly appreciate a heartfelt attempt to protect the integrity of future ones. Andy Shaw covered politics and government for ABC 7 and ran the Better Government Association. He is still active in good government reform groups.